A couple of months ago, I ordered microSD cards from Shenzhen Chuangnuode Intelligent Science & Technology Co., Ltd, a reseller on Alibaba. This is not my first order from Alibaba and I'd have to say that 90% of the time, everything goes on fine with the product getting delivered as per the specs especially since I always order items with the AliBaba trade assurance.
However, this seller apparently thought they could cheat their way through. So instead of sending me the Class 10 SD cards as requested, they went for the lower speed Class 6 SD cards. Even though I specifically told them I will test the SD cards, they didn't care at all.
Not only were the SD cards class 6, but they were prone to corruption a lot more than previous cards I got from Taiwan. This caused incredible headaches since I used them for StellarMate. After testing the cards, their speeds were slightly above class 6 but well below what you expect for a class 10 cards.
After raising the issue with the seller, they stuck to their story, but then I raised dispute with Alibaba to get my money back for this scam. They then acknowledged that they indeed cheated as illustrated below!
However, this seller apparently thought they could cheat their way through. So instead of sending me the Class 10 SD cards as requested, they went for the lower speed Class 6 SD cards. Even though I specifically told them I will test the SD cards, they didn't care at all.
Not only were the SD cards class 6, but they were prone to corruption a lot more than previous cards I got from Taiwan. This caused incredible headaches since I used them for StellarMate. After testing the cards, their speeds were slightly above class 6 but well below what you expect for a class 10 cards.
After raising the issue with the seller, they stuck to their story, but then I raised dispute with Alibaba to get my money back for this scam. They then acknowledged that they indeed cheated as illustrated below!
Then they agreed to take the cards back, but they requested it to be sent via regular mail as UPS/Fedex/DHL would apparently incur some costs on that. In Kuwait, you avoid government registered mail like plague since it is managed worse than 3rd world countries. I tried avoiding sending via regular registered mail, but then AliBaba asked me to do so in order for the dispute to go forward, and so I did.
Now it's been a month and there still isn't any news on the package. Government mail, even registered one, could take ages to reach its destination.
So what's the take away from this? On one front, it's hard to avoid such scams. If you deal with Alibaba you will eventually get bitten by them. Even if you ask for samples, they can send you the "good" samples first and then send you the lower quality ones later.
Though to be fair most transactions I had in Alibaba went great without a hitch, so this is an outlier and not the rule. However, avoid this reseller at all costs and find more reputable sellers on their network.
UPDATE 2019-03-29: Finally AliBaba agreed to fully refund me today. The package arrived in China on February 14th, but it took the seller 4 weeks to report about receiving it. I have always used Alibaba Trade Assurance by default for all my purchases, but this case proves that it is a very solid insurance to protect you against dishonest sellers. Happy with Alibaba's effort in resolving this case!
UPDATE 2019-03-29: Finally AliBaba agreed to fully refund me today. The package arrived in China on February 14th, but it took the seller 4 weeks to report about receiving it. I have always used Alibaba Trade Assurance by default for all my purchases, but this case proves that it is a very solid insurance to protect you against dishonest sellers. Happy with Alibaba's effort in resolving this case!
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